A story of love and desire tells the subtle story of Ahmed, a young Frenchman of Algerian origin, who discovers at the Sorbonne all the sensuality and eroticism of Arab poetry at the same time that he falls in love with a young Tunisian much more emancipated than him. Sami Outalbali, 22, noticed in the series Sex Education, received the actor’s Valois, at the Angoulême festival, for his sensitive interpretation of this shy and particularly endearing student. The film comes out this Wednesday 1is September. Interview with Leyla Bouzid, director.
What gave you the idea to show the initiation of a young boy on the screen?
We live in a time when women are questioning a number of codes and I think men also have a strong need to reinvent their manhood. However, there is a lack of male learning stories. A lack of representations of boys being able to be in doubt, hesitation, mystery. I also wanted to show in this film their beauty and their sensuality, through the character of Ahmed.
Who is, moreover, of North African culture …
Like me, who was born in Tunisia. This film is the fruit of observations, of confidences received from boy friends who had difficulty in taking charge of their desires, their emotions, whereas they were perceived as super confident guys in their environment. In fact, they were little sugar hearts.
You put in front of Ahmed an emancipated girl who comes from Tunisia?
Yes, Farah. Unlike him, she knows where she came from and who she is. She is not in an identity crisis when he meets her in Paris, where he does not have his bearings. I think we have to put diversity back into what is called diversity in France. We must stop saying: the North Africans are all like that or as if. There are a lot of different people among them.
You also wanted to promote the Arab culture that you love?
Yes. I wanted to introduce Ahmed to texts that we do not know very well: Majnoun Leïla (Leïla’s fool), a sort of Romeo and Juliet transcribed in the 12the century. And then The song of ardent desire, d’Ibn Arabi, and The fragrant garden, a manual of sexual learning. I said to myself: this meeting, with a young Frenchman who likes to read, but does not have a really strong link with his roots, lives in the suburbs where there is still great sexual misery, it is already a beautiful promise. movies !
How did you find Sami Outalbali, who plays Ahmed?
I saw it on television in Prides by Philippe Faucon. A rather stealthy role, quite daring. I contacted him, we had a coffee, he corresponded in many respects to Ahmed. Even though he is extremely different. He is not a shy person, nor an introvert. I said to him: “There, I want to eroticize the male body. He has invested body and soul in this project!
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